Ever think you could do with a bit of improvement on your writing style?

One of the more unusual parts of my “job” is helping people write their blog content. Often, after a workshop, as a sort of freebie, I offer people my expertise in the form of notes, feedback, corrections, grammar edits and formatting. I thought this post would be useful for me to write to basically save myself time when doing editing – ie I send it to people BEFORE they start writing and then hey presto – less editing needed!

Yes, there are certain things you can try straight off the bat just by following these handy pointers!

So, if you’re up for blogging, read this post and as a special present, send me your next blog post for a freebie big of “Kerenising” because I like it when people strive to learn and improve!

Note, in this post, I have used “draft sentences” which you can use in a sort of fill in the blank way. Just replace the Xs with numbers and the square brackets with words relating to the “hint” I have placed between them.

1. Success weaving

This is a term I invented and even wrote an entire blog post about! It’s similar to “name dropping” but it’s about yourself. A subtle way of weaving in your own knowledge and success into your article, often at the beginning when you are framing the article. Your aim is to get the message across of your profession, experience, and expertise, in a few quick introductory lines and then throughout the post.

So, you could start the article saying something along the lines of:

“In my X years working in [PROFESSION], helping over X people with [WHATEVER YOU DO], I have noticed many people ask me [TYPICAL QUESTION], and they often think they are the only ones. If you are one of those people, don’t stress! I’ve learned that there are really only X ways to easily solve the problem of [TOPIC].

Then for each tip or example, use a relevant anecdote showing how YOU were able to help someone with your experience and expertise.

2. Short and punchy sentences

One of the things I tend to do when reading people’s blog posts is splitting sentences and paragraphs. Shorter sentences are easier to read. They take up less room in your brain. They increase the reader’s satisfaction of absorbing a complete point.

And you could, if you wanted, put a sentence all on its own line instead of as part of a paragraph!

Try it, you’ll find it’s super fun!

3. Subheadings

Another important point SO IMPORTANT I wrote a whole blog post about it. My rule? Never have more than 2 paragraphs before splitting it up with a subheading. Or, a bulleted list. Or, a picture.

4. Layering

This is where you create several pieces of content which might be about the same theme but are different approaches to it. There may be overlaps of advice but that is a great way to get people to learn and understand your most important beliefs and messages. Say, for example, you’re into tax efficient film financing schemes. You could have different posts, around the same sort of topic. The trick is not to publish them all in a row but to intersperse them with content about other themes. To illustrate this here is a list of headlines which are all about this one main topic, and could be written differently but still have common threads.

Film financing: The difference between SEIS and EIS

The tax saving benefits of microbudget films

How Ed, 55, saved 50% of his tax bill by investing in a film

Film makers: 3 things you need to know about EIS tax schemes

What investors never seem to understand about film funding with EIS

5. Batching

When it comes to making content, you want to ensure you don’t fall into the trap of publishing an epic post and then disappearing. TO avoid this, think about writing 2 or3 or 4 posts in one go. You’ll find your flow and you can do the main bulk of the writing in one session. A separate session can be used for picture sourcing, copy editing, revising, formatting and scheduling.

6. Write “I to you”

What I mean here is write as if you are talking to a specific person. If you do, you are including your reader, and it actually makes it a lot easier to write in a natural style – like the way you speak! Imagine one of your favourite clients and write as if you are explaining something to them in an email.

Hope you’ve found this useful and inspiring. And, I employed one of my other tricks to write this post – write it in an email to someone – thinking about someone in particular when writing advice posts helps it flow as easily as if you were talking face to face to them, and I have been writing this in an email to one of my favourite new superstar clients. His name is Dan, but I will not be releasing more information about his true identity until we launch his site!

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About the Author

Keren Lerner

Keren is the founder and CEO of Top Left Design and runs it with passion and drive. She truly believes that communication is the key to making the world a better place and loves how great design and marketing makes it easier to communicate and understand.